Star Wars in South Africa

South African Star Wars fans are in for a treat. DSTV’s channel 109 is going to host a pop-up Star Wars channel for an entire fortnight, starting on August 31st. The smorgasbord of movies, interviews, documentaries and behind the scenes peeks on offer will ensure that all Star Wars fans can have a total fest.

It’s all rather nicely timed, of course, for the the 7th instalment Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which is due out in December. Clever Marketing Bunnies.

I remember sitting with my brother being utterly enthralled by the lightsabers and aliens years ago. I’m wondering if our children are old enough to watch it now, the relevant Lego merchandise is already quite popular, so it’s kind of on their radar. I’m also wondering whether they’ll appreciate the special effects in the earlier movies, or lable them “lame”. Mary Poppins was a total flop in our household a couple of years back “Mummy, I can see the string, it’s not magic”.

..and finally, a little bit of related trivia for you:

TV wasn’t available in South Africa until 1976.

The first Star Was film (A New Hope) was released in 1977.

The Jawas’ language is alleged to be electronically speeded up Zulu – one of South Africa’s official languages! (I would LOVE to know if this is true. Any Zulu speakers out there, can you confirm or deny this?)